


Brief Respite

by reasonablywittyatbest



Category: Dishonored (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-05
Updated: 2014-11-05
Packaged: 2018-02-24 04:37:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2568440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reasonablywittyatbest/pseuds/reasonablywittyatbest
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daud And Lizzy have a chat after he breaks her out of Coldridge.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Brief Respite

Lizzy Stride tried to swear as she slid back into consciousness, tried to kick off the thin scratchy sheets that covered her. All she managed was to wriggle and moan. Fuck, that sounded pathetic; she'd have make sure she never made that noise again. Sneering at the sunlight that filtered though the dirty window she opened her eyes. The very small room she was in looked thoroughly abandoned, the smell of damp and decay was heavy in the air. It was a vast improvement over the prison. Well, well, it seemed like she hadn't hallucinated being rescued by the legendary assassin Daud after all.

Stiffly she propped herself up. The bruises were deep and still ached, and breathing was a bit painful, but her various cuts had been cleaned and bandaged as needed. Most heavily around the wrists where the shackles had worn away at the skin, though around her knuckles too; where the skin had split when she had landed blows of her own. Felt like shit still, but she'd had worse she reckoned. There was even water and bread on a rickety table by the bed. She shook her head as she reached for the water; it was like having assassin maids. Very light footfalls heralded the arrival of one of those assassins in full gear, mask and all. Carrying a tray of more food. 

"For big bad assassins you lot sure got a soft touch." She said as she sat up, hiding a wince, so he could place the tray on her lap. She wasn't going to turn down food, even if she wasn't one hundred sure of their motives yet. Starvation tactics were popular at Coldridge.

"Well it would have been very unfortunate if you were to die before being able to repay the favor you owe us." he said dryly. 

"Heh, fair enough." The whaler gestured for her hand, and she grudging let him check her bandages and other injuries as she picked at her food, fighting the urge to shove his hands away. She hated being prodded at, or being treated like a child. She didn't bite his hand when he tilted her face up to check the cut under her eye, but it was a close thing. 

"No infections, you'll be fine. Your ribs are probably cracked though." he finally declared. Finished, he turned to leave and she couldn't resist a parting remark. 

"What, no disappearing act? We've all heard the stories about the mysterious Whalers you know." 

He hesitated, and then he wasn't there anymore. Overseer's knickers, that was disconcerting, she disguised a shudder as a shrug and went back to her food. 

Her breakfast was soon interrupted by her white knight himself; Daud looking even more imposing in his own uniform in that small room than he had at the prison. And in his hands was... her hook. She snatched it away as soon as it was offered to her, feeling much better with it at her side. 

"Found it with other goods confiscated from inmates, thought you might appreciate having it back." he told her as he dragged a very sad looking chair out of a corner over to the side of the bed. 

"Yeah, thanks." She said, she liked him already for giving her, her weapon back. She wondered if she could take him in a fight, definitely not as she was now, and not if he used the dark powers everyone loved to whisper about. Either way, there was no way she was going to talk to him half laying down like some invalid. She moved, slower than usual, to sit cross legged with her hook laid across her lap; being armed and upright made her feel better than any amount of food or doctoring could. She turned her gaze to asses her rescuer. 

She was surprised the spindly little chair held his weight; slightly above average height, broad and solid, even under the thick leathers of the whaler uniform he wore she could tell he was all muscle. At the prison his face had been covered in a Overseer mask; but it wouldn't have mattered, she knew him only by reputation and the scant reports her eels had brought back. And none of them had made it far enough to get close to Daud himself; she figured the ones that did were the ones that didn't make it back at all. 

Now that she can see his face she thought its wasn't a bad face at all. Almost something aristocratic about it; it was easy enough to imagine him as the retired captain of some grand naval warship at some noble's brightly light party in dress uniform gruffly recounting war stories to easily impressed ladies. She doubted he was anywhere near as treacherous as those snakes though, too much weathering and life in the lines of his face. She grinned her full shark toothed grin at him, yeah she liked the look of him. 

There was a silence as they sized each other up, which she was the first to break "So, you're Daud, you're smaller than I expected, older too, way folks talk about you I expected you to be eight feet tall with void eyes." She thought she saw the corner of his mouth twitch up in a small smile. 

"How are you feeling?" he countered with. 

"Great, I had a lovely vacation in prison, you saw how nice the accommodations were." she quipped back. She would rather die of plague than admit she was feeling like shit in front of this man. He definitely smiled at that. 

"Well princess, If you need anything just ask one of my men. We'll get you flying in no time." Of course he had to bring that up, she scowled at him, wasn't her fault she'd passed, out was it. 

"Look pops, You broke me out of prison, you've fixed me up, you say you're going to get my ship and gang back, and all I have to do is take you up river. Seems like a lot of trouble to go through for a boat ride, whatever you need to do outside the city, it must be really important. Or dangerous, if no one else would take the job." 

The dark look that crossed his then face would have drawn shudders from a weaker soul. What kind of shit was she getting herself into, she wondered. 

"You're the best one for the job," he finally said, with a small gesture of his hands indicating it was plain to see. 

"I must be the only one for the job you mean"

"Both of these can be true." 

In all her years in Dunwall's underworld this was definitely the most ludicrous thing that had happened. She couldn't help shake her head at him. Being rescued from prison, promised her ship back, all for a ride up the river. There were other smugglers in town, or maybe they were all dead now, she didn't know. She'd been in prison for too long and things changed fast on the streets even when there wasn't a plague ravaging the city. The men and women she dealt with every day were more likely to cut her throat and steal her ship than go out of their way like this, and that was even the ones she liked. She had liked her second in command. The Whalers were different though, Daud was different. Removed, almost legendary. They never participated in gang wars; unless, of course, they were paid to. 

"You owe me the favor." He said, his raspy voice quiet, maybe he took her silence as a refusal. If he had hoped to rile her he had, insulted that he would question her word. A criminal she may be but she had her pride. Her lip pulled back in a snarl as she prepared to tell him such as rudely as she could, but he held up his hand to stop her and continued. 

"I know you're good for your word, or I wouldn't have bothered to break you out. I just don't have time for you to argue." 

Dammit, that was fair enough. "You must know a lot more about than I do about you," She settled on snarling. 

"Of course, knowing things is part of my job." He said crossing his arms and leaning back in the chair. He was going to give her nothing else till he was sure she'd agree. What else was there, he was right; she owed him. There was no way she'd go in blind though. 

"You've got to tell me what I'm getting me and my men into." Treacherous bastards that they were they were still her treacherous bastards and if she was going to get them into deep shit she would like to know what it was. 

"You won't believe me, but I suppose if it will make you feel more agreeable. I'm hunting a witch named Delilah who has some sort of evil plan brewing." She couldn't help but laugh at that, it just kept getting better. He continued anyways "If you find that hard to believe than believe that I am hunting the woman who turned one of my own against me and tried to turn my men into the overseers. I'm sure you can relate" 

Damn straight she could. 

"I guess that's that then, pops, you get me my ship back and I will take you where ever you want to go, we'll pay your little witch a visit. If it works out, well, I'll owe you more than that." 

He stared directly in her eyes and she held his gaze with no problem. Then he nodded tersely and stood up. "Rest now, we'll have work to do soon enough," he said as he rose from the chair, gracefully of course, and turned to go. 

"Yes, father." 

She thought could hear his short laugh as he left the room. Then she slumped back against the wall, muttering swear words, she was tired as fuck already. As she grudgingly laid down again she swore to she'd find a way to get revenge on every single guard who dared lay a hand on her; entertaining herself with ideas of violence as she slipped back off to sleep.


End file.
